3-083-028 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Ministerial Crisis: Sir William Harcourt announcing the resignation of the Government in the House of Commons on June 21, 1895. '"I would ask leave to say that for every man who has taken part in the noble conflicts of Parliamentary life, the chiefest ambition of all ambitions, whether in the majority or in the minority, must be to stand well with the House of Commons"...Lord Rosebery's Ministry has fallen...Sir William Harcourt spoke with much feeling of the close of his leadership of the House, and his language excited a good deal of surmise as to his political prospects. By some it was interpreted to mean that he contemplates retirement from public life, but that is scarcely credible...The object of the late Government in resigning instead of dissolving is that they may be placed in a position of attack instead of defence, and that they may have an opportunity of challenging the general policy of their successors before going to the constituencies. On the other hand, the Unionists are confident of a handsome majority at the polls, and it is certain that the basis of the Ministerial policy in the new Parliament has been settled by their leaders in view of an early dissolution'. From "Illustrated London News", 1895.